Hot!
Honouring young business leaders …some Ghanaians decorated at ‘Forty under 40 Africa’ awards
The Forty under 40 Africa awards were held recently to honour the continent’s most influential and accomplished business leaders, under the age of 40, from a wider range of sectors.
Young people from 16 African countries were nominated with the most outstanding personalities taking home the ultimate prizes in their respective categories.
Here is a summary profile of four Ghanaians who were decorated for excellence in their chosen professions. They are Rosebird Ama Dadzie (Theatre and Arts female category), Ronald Tagoe,(Science & Technology) Nelson Amo (Investment) and Dr. Kofi Amoa-Abban (Oil & Gas).
Rosebird Ama Dadzie
The realistic pencil artist started drawing at an early age and developed her talent further as her drawings were being complimented by teachers and classmates in school.
Later in life, she studied Painting and Decorating at Takoradi Technical University, and started building a portfolio as her passion for ‘hype-realistic figurative art’ grew and participated in many art and craft exhibition.
She began drawing African celebrities and sometimes spent weeks and months to produce art pieces with strong emotions to connect with her audience. She captures details of her artwork using charcoal, graphite, colour pencil and paint.
Describing her craft as rewarding, she says her artworks are made from “determination and love purposely to groom and educate people,” as she encourages young ladies especially to be self-reliant, have positive self-esteem, as well as gain confidence to face and overcome life’s challenges.
Ronald Tagoe
Ronald attended Presbyterian Boys Secondary School (PRESEC) and continued at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), where he studied Computer Science and graduated in 2013.
In 2021, he completed his Master’s programme in Advanced Computer Science from the University of Leicester (UK) and passed with distinction. While at KNUST, he co-founded mNotify, a telecommunications company (SMS and Voice Technologies) with the objective of improving information dissemination within corporate organisations and religious bodies.
The company, under his leadership over the past nine years, became one of the giants in the Communications cloud service space with its products spanning across SMS, Voice Technologies, and the USSD infrastructure. mNotify currently has over 20,000 clients across many industries and makes an average annual revenue of USD 350,000.
He is passionate about Artificial Intelligence and considers social commerce as the future of commerce in Africa. This passion led him to start Chatbots Africa to empower African Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) to increase their revenue and enhance their customer engagement using Artificial Intelligence and Chatbots (Conversational Commerce).
Chatbots Africa is currently registered in Ghana and in Kenya. Another application he developed is the Sario App, a music-oriented crowdfunding platform in Ghana which won the Lifestyle App Category at the 2018 MTN Apps Challenge.
Nelson Amo
Nelson is experienced in Business Development, Grant Management, Business Model Innovation, Growth Planning, and Project Management in the profit and non-profit sectors.
He is an alumnus of the Oxford Social Finance Programme from the Oxford University of Business School. He has a Master of Science (MSc) in Development Studies from London School of Economic (LSE) with special interest in Business Model Innovation.
In addition to other certificate courses in Finance, he is the Grant Manager/Programme Lead for ‘mLab Ghana’ a project under the Ministry of Communications with funding from the World Bank. The programme aims to promote the development of digital start-ups, and support them to develop and launch their prototypes on the market.
Mr. Amo had previously designed and led enterprise support programmes such as the Innohub Accelerator Programme, Solidaridad West Africa’s Accelerator for Responsible Gold, fLab Incubator for females in tech, the British Council’s ReadyToWork incubator programme, among others.
He has led consulting projects across several industries including health, renewable energy, agribusiness, green housing. He is a Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance Fellow and a Coach of the Africa Entrepreneurship Awards, hosted by the BMCE Bank of Africa in Morocco.
Dr. Kofi Amoa-Abban
Best known as the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Rigworld Group, he is an indigenous upstream Oil and Gas entrepreneur and a philanthropist.
The company has operations across West Africa and beyond, and has, over the years, proven its international acceptance as a top-quality service provider.
Dr. Amoa-Abban’s exemplary professional competencies have been pivotal in making local content and participation regulations feasible in the upstream oil and gas industry.
Some of his accomplishments as the CEO of Rigworld Group include securing long-term working relationships with global oil and gas giants like Maersk Drilling, Tullow oil, Modec, Eni, Score (Europe) Ltd.
He holds a degree in Psychology from the University of Ghana and a master’s degree from Oslo University, where his interest in the oil industry was piqued following the discovery of oil in Ghana in 2007.
Prior to establishing Rigworld, he had served as a drill crew member with Atwood Hunter and Banda Wells. His contribution and dedication to the oil and gas sector has earned him several awards, apart from the recent recognition at the Africa 40under40 awards.
By Spectator Reporter
The Heartfelt Philanthropy Network and fellows of Elevate Africa Fellowship have visited the Street Academy in Accra to support its efforts to improve the welfare and development of children.
The visit formed part of efforts by the organisations to give back to the community and promote opportunities for children through education, healthcare and other social support programmes.
Ms Yvonne Abba-Opoku, Founder and Director of the Heartfelt Philanthropy Network, said the organisation had supported the Street Academy since 2019 because of its commitment to serving vulnerable children. Read More.
SKIP THE QUEUE, TAP THE NEWS
You can now read the Ghanaian Times and The Spectator newspapers from the comfort of your device via TimesNewsPlus.
Buy Maps
Join our WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBElzjInlqHhl1aTU27
Alberta Afia Asomaniwa Akoto, popularly known as “Landlady,” has declared her intention to contest as the Parliamentary Candidate for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Okaikwei North Constituency.
In a statement shared on Friday, Ms. Akoto said Okaikwei North has been her home for more than 40 years, where she has lived among the people, shared in their joys and challenges, and built lasting connections with the community.
“I am in the race because I believe our community deserves dedicated service, a listening ear and a strong voice. I am ready to work with you, listen to your concerns and help build a brighter future for Okaikwei North,” she said.
“Dear Okaikwei North, your girl is here one of your own, ready to serve,” she added.
Ms. Akoto said service is not just a responsibility but a commitment to the people and the community they call home.
Having dedicated herself to serving and supporting the people of the constituency, she said she wishes to continue the journey of service with renewed commitment, greater dedication and a stronger vision.
Her vision, she noted, is to build on the progress made, listen to the concerns of the people, empower the youth, support women, create opportunities and champion development that benefits every community in the constituency.
“I believe that together, we can build a stronger, more prosperous and inclusive Okaikwei North,” she added.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
